A brief hesitation. `Number 1.'
'Number 1. Ground floor, I suppose?’ Quite so. You must be an old resident, Mrs Larkin?'
She blazed. `What the hell difference is it to you? If you've got any complaint to make, make it to the maeager of the flats.
Again Hadley gravely considered, his hands folded. `Who would also tell me how long you had been a resident. After all, it can't harm you to give us a bit of assistance, can it?' Some time' — he raised his eyes — 'some time it 'might help you a good deal.'
Another hesitation. `I didn't mean to speak so sharp,' she told him, moving sullenly in the chair. `Well, if it does you any good, I've been there a few weeks; something like that'
`That's better. How many flats on each floor?'
`Two. Two in each entry of the building.'
'So,' Hadley said, musingly, `you must have lived directly
across the way from Mr Driscoll. Did you know him?' `No. I've seen him, that's all.'
`Inevitable, of course. And passing in and out, you may have noticed whether he had visitors?'
`Sure I did. I couldn't help it. He had lots of people coming to see him.'
'I was thinking particularly of women.'
For a moment Mrs Larkin scrutinized him with an ugly eye. `Yes. There was women. But what about it? Live and let live, that's what I say. It was none of my business. But if you're going to ask me who the women were, you can save your breath. I don't know.'
`For instance,' said Hadley. He glanced over at the sheet of mauve notepaper. `You never heard the name 'Mary used, did you?'
She stiffened. Her eyes remained fixed on the notepaper, and she stopped fiddling with her cuff.
`No. I told you I didn't know him. The only woman's name I ever heard in connexion with him was on — the up-and-up. It was a little blonde. She used to come with a big thin bird with eyeglasses on. One day she stopped me as I was coming in and asked me how she could find the porter to get into his flat. There's no hall-porter; it's an automatic lift. She said her name was Sheila and she was his cousin. And that's all I ever heard.'
Hadley remained silent for a time.
`Now, about this afternoon, Mrs Larkin…. How did you happen to come to the Tower of London?'
`I've got a right to come here if I want to. I don't need to explain why I go to a public building, do I?’
'When, did you arrive?'
`Past two o'clock. Mind, I don't swear to that! I'm not under oath. That's what time I think it was.'
`Did you make the tour..go all round?'
`I went to two of them — Crown Jewels and Bloody Tower. Not the other one. Then I got tired and started out. They stopped me.'
Hadley went through the routine of questions, and elicited nothing. She had been deaf, dumb, and blind. There were other people about her… she remembered an American cursing the fog… but she had paid no attention to the others. At length he dismissed her, with the warning that he would probably have future questions.
The moment she had disappeared Hadley hurried to the door. He said to the warder there:
`Find Sergeant Hamper and tell him to put a tail on the woman who's just left here. Hurry! Then tell Hamper to come back here.' he turned back to the desk, thoughtfully beating his hands together.
`Hang it all, man,' General Mason burst out, impatiently, `why the kid-glove tactics? A little third degree wouldn't have hurt. her. She knows something, right enough. And she probably is a criminal.'
`Undoubtedly, General. But I had nothing to hold over her; and, above all, she's much more valuable on the string. I think we'll find there is nothing against her at present at the Yard. And I'm almost sure we'll find she's a private detective.'
'Ha!' muttered the General. He twisted his moustache. 'A private detective. But why?'
`There are any number of indications. Clearly she has nothing to fear from the police; she challenged that with every word. She lives in Tavistock Square. The neighbourhood isn't 'flash' enough for her if she had that much money of her own to spend, and it isn't cheap enough if she had less. I know the type. She has lived there only a few weeks… just opposite Driscoll. She obviously had paid a great deal of attention to his visitors. She told us only one incident, the visit of his cousin Sheila, because that wouldn't help us; but you notice she had all the details.
`Then did you see her fumbling at her cuff? She hasn't been in the business long; she was afraid it would show out of the arm of her coat, and she was afraid to take it off over in the Warders' Hall, for fear of looking suspicious.'
`Her cuff?'
Hadley nodded. `These private snoopers who get material for divorces. They have to make notes of times and places quickly, and often in the dark. Oh yes. That's what she's up to. She was following somebody this afternoon.'
The General said, `Hum!' He scuffled his feet a moment before asking, 'Something to do with Driscoll?'
Hadley put his head down in his hands.
`Yes. You saw the start she couldn't help giving when she saw that note on my desk. She wasn’t close enough to have read it, but the colour of the paper was enough to identify it.. if she's ever seen any similar notes in connexion with Driscoll. H'm, yes. But that's not the point. I strongly suspect that the person she was actually shadowing this afternoon was… whom do you say, Doctor?'
Dr Fell relighted his pipe. `Mrs Bitton, of course. I'm afraid she rather gave herself away, if you listened to what she said.'
But, good God!' muttered the General. `You mean to say there's something between Driscoll and.. H'm. Yes. It fits, I suppose. But where's your proof?'
`I haven't any proof. As I say, it's only a suspicion.' Hadley rubbed his chin, 'Still, let's take it as a hypothesis for the moment, and work back. Let's assume Larkin was shadowing Mrs Bitton…. Now, this White Tower, General. That's the biggest and most important one isn't it? And it's some distance away from the Bloody Tower, isn't it?'
`Well, yes… it stands alone; it's in the middle of the inner ballium walls just beside the parade-ground.'
`And the tower where the Crown jewels are kept is directly beside the Bloody Tower?'
`The Wakefield Tower. Yes. Wait a minute!' said Mason, excitedly. `I've got it. Mrs Bitton went to see the Crown Jewels. So did Larkin. Mrs Bitton said she wandered up through the arch of the Bloody Tower; and up to the parade-ground…. Larkin' went to the Bloody Tower. She couldn't keep too close to Mrs Bitton. And if she went up the stairs of the Bloody Tower to Raleigh's Walk, she could have seen from a height where Mrs Bitton was going.'
`That's what I wanted to ask you,' said Hadley, knocking his fists against his temples. `She couldn't have seen very far in the mist, of course. It's more probable she did that — if she did — to keep up the illusion of being a tourist. Or she might, have thought Mrs Bitton had gone into the Bloody Tower. It's all supposition. But neither of them went to the White Tower, you see…. Those may be coincidences, but when you couple them with the presence of those two women here, and the statements of Mrs Bitton and Larkin, they sound pretty plausible indications.'
`You're assuming,' said the General, pointing to the table, `that Mrs Bitton wrote that note?' -
`And all the time,' Hadley mused, `suspecting she was being watched, see what the note says: 'Be careful. Suspect. Vital.' The letter was posted at ten-thirty last night in Mrs Bitton' s district, after Driscoll had paid a short visit that evening. Mrs Bitton had just come back from a walking tour of Cornwall…, and why, in God's name, a walking tour in Cornwall in the worst part of March, unless somebody wanted to get her away from a dangerous infatuation?’
'I'm running on, I suppose. Still, if we assume all this, we must assume it was a dangerous infatuation. For here's a private detective who has been planted in a flat opposite Driscoll for some weeks, even during the time she and her husband were away!… Does that mean anything? And who planted her there? Offhand, of course, the husband.!
'But the name, 'Mary'?' suggested General Mason.
`I've heard many more hilariously funny nicknames whatd'yecallem pet names… in my time,' Hadley said, grimly. 'And the handwriting's undoubtedly disguised. Even if it were stolen, it couldn't be used as evidence against
